2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Japan's Homeless : Regional Circumstances, Government Responses, International Comparison
| Project/Area Number |
15530319
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Sociology
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| Research Institution | Meiji Gakuin University, Faculty of International Studies |
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Principal Investigator |
GILL Tom Meiji Gakuin University, Faculty of International Studies, Associate Professor, 国際学部, 助教授 (50323655)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2004
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| Keywords | Homeless / Shelter / Poverty / Welfare / Urban / Civil / Society / 貧困 |
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| Research Abstract |
In the summer of 2002,the Japanese Diet passed the Homeless Self-Reliance Support Law. This marked the first formal admission by the central government that Japan had a homeless problem and the first attempt to legislate specifically for that problem. One of the aims of this project was to study the situation of homeless people in several major Japanese cities, comparing the cities' homeless policies and management of shelters, in order to determine the impact of these policies on homeless people themselves. Another was to study homeless policy in the United States and Britain-two countries that have been struggling to tackle homelessness for much longer than Japan By studying the similarities and differences between homelessness strategies in different countries and cities, I hoped to define the characteristics and problematic areas of Japanese homeless policy. In the course of this project I made study visits to homeless shelters in Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka etc., and also to Lo
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s Angeles and New Haven in the United States and to London, Liverpool and Oxford in Britain.
I conclude that (1)there is very considerable regional variation within Japan, with at least three distinguishable patterns, which I call the Osaka model, Tokyo model and Yokohama model. Cities may use similar labeling, reflecting the language of the national program, but the common labeling of facilities as ‘self-reliance support centers' may conceal major differences in length of stay, entrance/exit policies, day-to-day management, rules on repeat admissions, etc. The term jiritsu shien (self-reliance support) is a popular buzzword in Japanese welfare policy these days, but the welfare authorities in each city are making their own attempts to define exactly what it means. (2)This is still a fairly new policy challenge for Japan, and the content and execution of policy is still changing constantly through a process of trial and error. (3)In Britain the launch of the Rough Sleepers Unit in 2000 marked a period of intense work on homelessness, which has succeeded in dramatically reducing the number of street homeless. However, support for homelessness has snowballed into a massive industry in Britain, and a close look at local conditions and the running of shelters shows that Britain is not necessarily a success story for Japan to imitate. (4)The United States has also developed a massive homeless support system, made up of a complex patchwork of government agencies, NGOs and church/charitable groups. Some groups show novel and inventive approaches to the issue. Even so the number of homeless people continues to be far higher than in Japan, making the US case of value mainly as a warning of the consequences of a piecemeal approach lacking a national framework and systematic funding. Less
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